New skin cancer drug hailed 'paradigm shift' in treatment

A new treatment for advanced skin cancer has been hailed as a paradigm shift after it boosted one year survival chances from just one in ten to almost three in four

Around 13,300 cases of malignant melanoma are diagnosed in the UK each year and cases have increased fivefold since the 1970s, thought to be due to the rise in sunshine package holidays and sunbeds

A new drug has increased survival chances from advanced skin cancer seven fold and been hailed a paradigm shift in cancer therapy, it has been announced.
The results of early tests using a drug to prompt the body's own immune system to attack the cancer has found that 74 per cent of patients were still alive after one year, compared to just ten per cent currently.
Dr David Chao, Consultant Medical Oncologist, Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust, said: “Pembrolizumab looks like it has potential to be a paradigm shift for cancer therapy.
“The survival results seen in the study which are the most meaningful measures of success to doctors and patients alike, are very promising and could benefit the many patients with advanced melanoma in the UK.”
Around 13,300 cases of malignant melanoma are diagnosed in the UK each year and cases have increased fivefold since the 1970s, thought to be due to the rise in sunshine package holidays and sunbeds.

Advanced skin cancer, which has spread to other parts of the body, has a poor prognosis and currently only one in ten people live for a year after diagnosis.
However some people have lived for two years while receiving the new treatment.
The new drug is being evaluated for use in 30 types of cancer.
The study, presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO 2014), showed three quarters of patients responded to the drug.
The drug is an antibody that allows the body's immune system to once again 'see' the cancer as a foreign invader and so attack it.
Several companies have begun making similar drugs and have been testing them in a variety of cancers.
One called ipilimumab (Yervoy) is already on the market for advanced malignant melanoma and can increase average survival from six months to ten months when compared with standard treatment.
The new drug was found to increase survival in those patients whose cancer had started growing again after treatment with ipilimumab.
Gillian Nuttall, Founder of Melanoma UK said: “Advanced melanoma is a terrible disease with a poor prognosis.
"Pembrolizumab represents the latest advance in a whole raft of new treatments in advanced melanoma which have come through over the past few years.
"The pembrolizumab results are really exciting and could represent a turning point for patients affected by advanced melanoma giving them a greater chance of survival.”
The makers, MSD, are hoping to apply for a European licence by the end of the year and it has been accepted for a fast-track licencing procedure in America.
Professor Peter Johnson, Cancer Research UK’s chief clinician, said: “It’s exciting to see the range of new treatments that are emerging for people with advanced melanoma. These new therapies harness the body’s own immune system to fight this cancer that has previously been so hard to treat effectively.
“Melanoma can only grow by finding a way to escape detection by the immune system. One way it does this is by triggering a shut-off switch on immune cells when they get close to the tumour.
"This treatment blocks the cancer cells' ability to use this switch, allowing the immune system to recognise and destroy the cancer. We are seeing a whole range of these immune treatments coming into the clinic, based upon the great progress we are making in our research into the immune system.”